Rumor: Senators in danger of losing 2 more of their top players.

Things may get much worse before they get better.

HockeyFeed
HockeyFeed
Published 5 years ago
Rumor: Senators in danger of losing 2 more of their top players.
Daniel Lea-CSM-Zuma

It's hard not to feel sorry for the Ottawa Senators fan base right now. 

Over the course of roughly the last year or so the direction of the Senators organization has shifted drastically. The Senators went from being legitimate Stanley Cup Contenders, a team that lost to the eventual Stanley Cup Champions and was just 1 game away from the final, to being one of the National Hockey League's bottom feeders and one of the most dysfunctional teams in the entire league. 

I don't think it would be fair to point to a single factor for the sudden collapse of the team, there were instead a large number of factors that combined to create the perfect storm. There was the Mike Hoffman situation where Hoffman's fiancee, Monika Caryk, was accused of harassing and even cyber stalking Melinda Karlsson, the wife of then senators superstar defenseman Erik Karlsson. Add to that the very serious problems at the very top of the organization, beginning and ending with owner Eugene Melnyk and you had a recipe for disaster on your hands. 

When the dust had settled the Senators had lost Hoffman, trading him to the San Jose Sharks for relatively very little in return only to see the Sharks flip him immediately for a much more significant return. Karlsson would soon follow and once again it was a trade with the San Jose Sharks that saw the organizations top star walk out the door, although in this case the Senators' hand may have been forced by Karlsson's desire to get out from under owner Eugene Melnyk.

Through it all fans have had to sit back and watch as their team produce poor results on the ice and as quality player after quality player left the team without a great deal of excitement regarding what came back the other way. Unfortunately as is often the case in situations like this the bad just continues to pile on and their may be some very rough going ahead remaining for the Senators and their fan base. 

One could argue that the top two players remaining within the organization are now veteran forward Mark Stone and veteran forward Matt Duchene. Fortunately for the Senators the two men are the type of players that you could build around moving forward, but that would require the Senators to sign the two pending free agents to a new deal prior to the start of the 2019 NHL free agent period.  So how likely is it that they remain and sign a new deal? 

In a recent radio interview Sportsnet insider Elliotte Friedman was asked about that very subject and unfortunately his comments don't really leave a lot of room for hope. Given the current state of the Senators Friedman believes that the organization is still three to four years away from competing again and neither Stone nor Duchene may be willing to sit around lose for that long.

"I think the biggest question they have right now is how are Stone and Duchene going to feel about giving up maybe the next three, four years of their careers, said Friedman as per Chris Nichols. "You know if you stay in Ottawa now, barring a miracle run, you’re going to miss the next three years of playoffs. I think that’s a lot to ask of some guys, and I just think that’s a tough spot of where they are now."

If Stone and Duchene were to both walk away it could be a very long time indeed before the Senators are once again a playoff threat again.

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